Gardner v. Sharp

9 F. Cas. 1196, 4 Wash. C. C. 609
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey
DecidedOctober 15, 1826
DocketCase No. 5,236
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 9 F. Cas. 1196 (Gardner v. Sharp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gardner v. Sharp, 9 F. Cas. 1196, 4 Wash. C. C. 609 (circtdnj 1826).

Opinion

WASHINGTON, Circuit Justice

(charging jury). The first question for the consideration of the jury is, whether this court can take jurisdiction of the cause now under consideration. This depends upon the question. whether the lessor of the plaintiff was a citizen of the state of Pennsylvania, as the declaration avers, at the time this suit was brought; or was a citizen of this state, as the defendant insists. And this is always a mixed question of law and fact. The decision of the former rests with the court; the latter must be determined by the jury.

In reference to the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, citizenship means domicil — home — permanent residence. When a citizen of one state removes to another, and a question of jurisdiction arises, it must be decided by the quo animo which induced the removal. If it was to remain permanently in the state -to which he has emigrated, it amounts to a change of domicil and of citizenship. If it was merely for a temporary purpose, he can be considered only as a sojourner in the state to which he has gone. Length of residence, although it may afford evidence of the real intention of the party in changing his place of residence, is not of itself a criterion of change of domi-cil. If the intention of the party be bona fide to change his domicil, the residence of a day at his new home constitutes him a citizen of the state to which he has removed. If. on the contrary, his removal was accompanied by the animo revertendi, he is considered in law but as a sojourner in the state where he has fixed his temporary residence, although that residence may have continued for years. If the removal be for the purpose of giving jurisdiction to the courts of the United States, it is a fraud upon the consti.tution and laws of the United States; unless it was also accompanied by an intention in the party to change his domicil. For although such a motive, if proved, may subject the good faith of the transaction to suspicion; still it will not be sufficient to prevent the change of citizenship if that was bona fide the intention of the removal, and change of domicile was bona fide. Having, laid down these general principles for the information of the jury, it will be for them to apply them to the facts of the case. (Here the judge summed up the evidence in relation to this point.)

We have now come to the merits of the cause, which involves the two following general questions: (1) Has the lessor of the plaintiff shown such a title to the land in controversy, as to entitle him to a verdict? And if he has, then (2) Is his right barred by the act of limitations?

1. The title of the lessor, as deduced by the opening counsel, commences with a deed in the year 1737, from John Champness to John Kyd, for three hundred acres of land, including that in dispute, then in the possession of Kyd. The will of John Kyd in 1750, by which he derives the land in controversy to his son Isaac, in fee tail. On the 9th of November 1753, Isaac conveyed the same to Joseph Sharp, in fee simple, with general warranty, who entered thereon in the course of that year. Isaac died in the year 1776. leaving a son Bbenezer, his heir at law, and issue in tail. In the year 1777, Ebenezer died, leaving the lessor of the plaintiff, then an infant, his heir at law, and issue in tail. In this chain of title it is manifest that an essential link is wanting, and that is, a grant, or something equivalent thereto, to pass the title out of the proprietors to some person under whom the lessor claims. This was to be effected by warrant and survey duly made and returned, approved by the council of proprietors, and recorded, or by length of possession. Whether the title could pass out of the proprietors by any other mode, need not be decided, as none such was alluded to in this case by the opening counsel. No warrant or survey in favour of any person under whom the lessor claims, has been given’ iu evidence. But a title is asserted under the grant from Lord Berkley to John Fenwick, and sundry conveyances by Fenwick and others, claiming under him. which must now be attended to. Whether Fenwick ever had a title, otherwise than as trustee, to West Jersey, may, at least, admit of a doubt; but supposing his title to have been indisputable, it remains to be seen whether it passed, in respect to the land in dispute, to any person under whom John Kyd claimed. The deeds from Fen-wick to his two sons in law, Edward Champness, and Samuel Hedges, and their wives, were for two hundred acres to each, to be taken out of the undivided moiety of New Jersey. These deeds could pass a title to no specific tracts of land until they were surveyed, and no evidence of any such sur[1200]*1200veys has been given. Neither does it appear to what tract of land the release of Hedges to John Ivyd, of the 30th of November 1725, for two hundred acres, applied.

But it is contended by the plaintiff’s counsel, that the jury may, and ought, to presume an ancient survey of the lands granted by Fenwick to his sons in law, founded upon those grants. Were it to be admitted that the evidence laid a sufficient ground for such a presumption, it is still open to be rebutted by other evidence, leading to the conclusion that no such survey was made. The following-circumstances are now submitted to the consideration of the jury in support of this conclusion:

(1) After a thorough search of the records of the surveyor general’s office, from the year 1USG, the present surveyor general has deposed that he could find no survey of this land in favour of Fenwick, Edward or John Champness, John Kyd, or any other person, except Joseph Sharp, in the year 1753. He stated that the records in that office did not extend farther back than the year 1G86.

(2) The bond of John Champness and Sarah Hall, before mentioned, to John Kyd, given as late as the 12th of October, 1720. affords strong evidence that no survey had then been made: since it obliges the obligor to convey two hundred acres of land, not by metes and bounds, or by any other‘description, but to be taken out of any part of Fen-wick’s undivided moiety.

(3) The assignment of Edward Champness to his son John, in the year 1704, (eighteen years after the year 1080,) of his interest in the two hundred acres granted to him .by Fenwick, makes no mention of any such survey, and gives no description of the said land by metes and bounds, or otherwise.

(4) By the act of 1719 (Rev. Code, § 11) it is enacted, “that all surveys heretofore made, the certificates whereof are in the hands of any of the inhabitants of the province, or any •of the neighbouring provinces, which are not within two years: and that all surveys heretofore made, the certificates whereof aré in the hands of the people living beyond seas, which are not, within three years after the publication hereof, duly recorded, either in the recorder’s office or in the surveyor general’s record of the respective division in which such lands are surveyed; be for ever hereafter void, and of none effect; and any succeeding survey, duly made thereof and recorded, shall be as good and sufficient as if no former survey had been made.” This was certainly a very awakening act, and it is to be presumed, would have induced all persons who had surveys of their lands previously made, to have them recorded within the prescribed periods. But admit that a survey of the land prior to 1719, instead of being presumed into existence, were proved by positive evidence. I am at a loss to imagine how the plaintiff could extricate himself from the effect of this law, which declares it to be void for want of being recorded, and gives validity to the subsequent survey made in 1753. for Joseph Sharp.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 F. Cas. 1196, 4 Wash. C. C. 609, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gardner-v-sharp-circtdnj-1826.